Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!uwvax!titanic.cs.wisc.edu!tonyrich
From: tonyrich@titanic.cs.wisc.edu (Anthony Rich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: Hypercard Pro Wishlist
Message-ID: <1991Mar16.012533.863@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 91 01:25:33 GMT
References: <17537@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu (The News)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 55

On my wishlist:

I'd like LESS!  I don't like that there are buttons AND fields; I'm
forever trying to make one act like the other.  How about getting rid of
both and just having ONE more-general kind of thing, the "object",
which has a variety of visual representations:  graphics, text, icon,
button, line, polygon, scrolling list, whatever.

It might be nice if several representations could be displayed simultaneously,
(at least text and graphics; maybe a geometric figure, too), so that you
could have a single object that displays text over a graphic -- like a state
in a map of the United States, for example, or a line that carries a text
label along its length no matter which way the object was rotated.  That way
there's only ONE object to script and ONE object to handle a click, not
multiple overlapping objects.

Each visual representation should be modifiable separately, so one could
lock the graphics displayed but still allow displayed text to be edited,
for example.

Basically, I'd like HyperCard Pro to be something like a drawing program
like Canvas, except that every object has a script.  It would be nice if
objects could be grouped and ungrouped for dragging and animation purposes.
To really make it fancy, you might be able to define special relationships
between objects, like "joined at a pivot point", or "connected by a rubber
band object".

I'd also like to dump the idea of referring to objects as "background"
or "foreground".  If a script in one stack refers to an object in some other
stack, it shouldn't have to know or care whether that remote object happens
to be in the background or foreground of its card.  The name or ID of the
object should be enough to identify it.  That way scripts wouldn't have to
be changed every time the objects they refer to are moved from the
foreground to the background or vice versa.

One thing I'd like ADDED is a "rectangular grid of scrolling cells" object.
Then we can all stop trying to fake it with those awkward scripts that
make parallel fields scroll simultaneously.  I think tables are common
enough that they should be directly supported.

Or should be a "rectangular grid of scrolling objects" object...?
(Hmmm.  Then we could call it "Finder".  ;^)

It seems like drawing programs, HyperCard, word processors, databases, and
spreadsheet programs are all inching toward the same common set of features.
I wish someone would just skip ahead and put them all together; then we
could skip all the endless little updates as the separate programs converge.

  -- Tony

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